When you’re operating an orthopaedic practice, IT may be one of the furthest things from your mind when the time comes to reinvest in your office. However, it can actually be one of the best ways to improve your practice’s profitability and reduce overhead costs. Here are some top IT trends you can invest in to make your orthopaedic practice a much more efficient operation.

7 Top Essential IT Investments for Your Practice

Digitization. Switching from paper records to EHR is only the first step of the process. Digitization is an overall trend that focuses on integrating every possible part of your practice’s operations to make it easier to access remotely and securely, create a more comprehensive approach to patient treatment and manage practice revenues.

Analytics. What are the patterns in your practice that you’re currently missing? Do you have patients who always seem to respond better after a number of changes to their treatment? Analytics programs take a hard look at what’s happening in your practice and use deductive processing to determine the best course of action for particular patients.

Modeling. Exactly how did that accident happen that landed 14-year-old Mimi in your office? What’s really causing 72-year-old Nick’s knee to act up again? Computer modeling of kinetic injuries or repetitive strain injuries can help you determine if there are other areas where you’ll want to check for damage and provides insights to keep in mind during rehabilitation.

Automation. Imagine going from patients checking themselves in when they get to the office to have the EHR ready to go as the visit begins to the automatic coding of treatments to billing without any handling of paperwork or computer files by your staff between each step of the process. Automation moves office tasks along while allowing you to focus on patients.

Collaboration. When you have clients with complex orthopaedic issues or need to consult with other specialists before beginning treatment, being able to collaborate with other healthcare professionals on your own timetable makes it much easier to get the information you need to provide the best possible patient outcomes.

Compatibility. It’s easy to end up with software that doesn’t play well with other programs you use in your office, but current trends are towards programs that work together to get the job done. Instead of having to manually move information from one system to another, compatibility makes it easy to get everything done with minimal human interaction.

Customization. It’s official – one size does not, in fact, fit all. Your practices is the sum of all you’ve worked for over the years and is unique to the culture and procedures you’ve developed. Why would you change that for software that demands you use it in the same way everyone else does? Having options to customize what you see and interact with is a strong trend in healthcare IT today.

When you invest in IT for your orthopaedic practice, you’re investing in its future and ensuring that it will remain competitive for years to come. Exscribe’s comprehensive orthopaedic healthcare solutions provide you with a wide range of integrated options to improve your practice’s patient outcomes and profitability.